Don’t Think of a U.S. Soldier, Unarmed, Abandoned in Iraq’s Civil War!
One need not be a linguist like George Lakoff to know that it’s hard to win a debate on the other guy’s assumptions. Or worse, the other guy’s lies.
For years Team Bush has sought to shroud their devastating and deepening Iraq occupation in the myth of troop protection. When they doled out contracts to Halliburton and Blackwater, it was about “funding the troops.” Even as VA health services were threatened, it was about “funding the troops.” Every yearly extension of the Iraq occupation is about “funding the troops.”
As Democratic leaders in Congress moved to hoist the white flag of surrender this week - giving Bush/Cheney billions more for Iraq without any timeline for withdrawal - we heard Speaker Nancy Pelosi repeatedly assuring the media that before Memorial Day, “We will have legislation to fund the troops!”
The shared pretense of the White House and Democratic leaders is that funding the Iraq occupation is somehow a program on behalf of the troops. Like a subsidy for family farmers.
Instead of challenging this misleading rhetoric by saying “The only way to support the troops is by ending an unwinnable occupation and fully funding a safe withdrawal,” Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid proclaims, “We will never abandon our troops in a time of war.” Along with the utterly confused: “No one wants us to succeed in Iraq more than the Democrats.”
What Democrats need to be saying, repeatedly, is that it’s Bush/Cheney who abandoned several thousand U.S. troops to avoidable deaths in a disastrous occupation, and tens of thousands to horrible injuries. And that they’re willing to abandon still more troops to unnecessary death and injury. Democrats also need to talk about polls that consistently show most U.S. troops in Iraq support withdrawal, as do most Iraqis.
As Military Families Speak Out says: “Funding the war is not supporting our troops. The way to support our troops is to bring them home now and take care of them when they get here.”
Yet Democratic leaders are helping Bush/Cheney win the linguistic argument by pledging they won’t “abandon the troops.” The image Republicans want to plant in our head is that of a U.S. solider abandoned, unarmed on an Iraqi mean street. And that’s exactly the image Democratic rhetoric keeps reinforcing. They’re on the “Don’t Think of an Elephant!” defensive.
I’m well aware that recent Congressional proposals to withdraw combat troops did not win a majority (receiving 171 votes in the House and 29 in the Senate) - let alone the 2/3 needed to override a Bush veto. But one reason for their defeats is that Democrats are fighting the Iraq debate on enemy terrain.
Another reason is that dozens of Democrats in Congress, including House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, seem bent on endless war. With such Democrats, don’t bother challenging their rhetoric. Better to challenge them in next year’s primaries.
Jeff Cohen http://www.jeffcohen.org/ is consultant for Progressive Democrats of America http://pdamerica.org/, former TV pundit/producer, and author of “Cable News Confidential: My Misadventures in Corporate Media.â€
“funding the troops” is a two-pronged propaganda attack.
First, the attack is against the people who have a right to hear from the government that they are not funding the troops but are in fact funding an imperial misadventure of death and destruction, and enriching war profiteers in the process.
Second, the attack is against the troops in using them as weapons in the attack against the people.
What are YOU going to do about it? Suggestion: Boycott all entities except your local small independent farmers, craftsmen, merchants. Use local currency, barter, etc. Eliminate debt/taxes. Close your bank account. Cancel your health insurance.
Although America has a long history of the rich robbing the poor, I don’t think we’ve seen anything quite like this situation in Iraq for a long time. At least there were very high taxes on the rich after World War II to offset war-profiteering, and the GI Bill helped millions of deserving veterans. At least LBJ established the Great Society programs during the Vietnam War. But Bush actually CUTS taxes(especially for the richest Americans) during a war that is supposedly so “important”, and at the same time, there is no draft. Anyhow, if there isn’t already a special international organization that sponsors a deserters/mutineers fund, there should be one that supports deserters of all nations who were forced to fight unecessary wars(who of course can’t return to their home country).
I would happily contribute to such a fund, and maybe slowly this would lead to the poor exploited soldiers of all nations realizing they are ultimately “in the same boat” - cannon fodder in rich man’s wars. This fund would play a crucual role in the international peace movement. It may slowly help erode the nationalism, faux patriotism and racism that helps to fuel the false belief in the “necessity” of wars only the rich exploiters benefit from. We absolutely must kill the false belief that poor Americans have the same interests as rich Americans, and the same goes for all countries. I’m sick to death of hearing about more poor Americans dying in Iraq for wealthy Americans profits. Maybe such a fund/organization already exists, anyone know?
rtdrury, you’re exactly right. As long as we accept the framing that the Democrats are fighting against Republicans we will continue to elect these people for the sake of bettering their lives at the cost of ours. It is blatantly obvious that our congressional representatives take part in the same money laundering, vote selling, special interest ass kissing and acting with their own best interest at heart, as does the Executive branch. There is no war, there is no opposition army against whom we fight. That we kill civilians and call it war makes little difference regarding the no-bid contracts awarded to companies who in turn reward your representatives. Since we cannot seem to get viable non-crooked, politically connected, bought and paid for candidates involved in the election process that is carried out on our airwaves at a cost so prohibitive that no honest man can afford to get his views heard by Americans, nor be allowed to purchase the air time for views that would threaten the meal tickets for the greedy and elite, perhaps it’s time we the people hit ‘em where it hurts. That is to say, the only goal of elected officials is to get their hands on our tax money. To elect an incumbent or even a family member of an ex politician is to elect a better, more well established thief. It takes time to build the overt and illegal connections to kickbacks for legislation. There must still be some amount of discretion excercised by these predators, and to re-elect one is to allow more time for his mafia network to drain our our resources. So step one is to vote out all incumbents, step two through infinitum is to remove the funds that the corporate-militaristic-elite-can’t do an honest day’s work-billionaire’s want to get their hands on. Work on a contract basis, insist your employer file a 1099 on you instead of paying taxes every paycheck. Withdraw funds from corporate banks, sell your stocks, dump your shitty health insurance, buy from independent shops and grocers, barter in your communities, pay cash, etc. Let the large corporations feel our pain and maybe some change will take place before we all have to quit our jobs and start hunting and farming our own food. It’s time to make a few sacrifices to save the world, for all the children, not just Bush and Cheney and Trump and Walton and Gates and Clinton and Murdock children. Peace.
“Funding the war is not supporting our troops. The way to support our troops is to bring them home now and take care of them when they get here.”
**it should be simplicity itself to turn this stupid catchphrase around.
Support the troops-bring them home.
But you get this feeding of a military society. Its not any sort of brilliance on the Republicans part–it is the lack of backbone in the Democrats.
In the United States of Everything the troops are being used as political pawns, because we are in a political war. The whole idea of “supporting the troops” is just a diversion used by pro war people who are happy to prolong the war. They have no interest in ending the war and they will use the troops in their political fight to keep the war going. That it’s even a topic worthy of mainstream discussion is a shame. You are either for the war or you are against the war. The soldiers didn’t start this war. It was started by a chickenshit government, that is low enough to politicize the very ones who sincerely cherish the true meaning of what it is to be an American.
Now, a “support the veteran” movement is necessary. America needs to debrief its veterans. Politicians and the media have a vested interest in not telling the truth about war. By listening to and talking with its veterans the country can partake in some of the wisdom gained by surviving a war. What you learn will make it harder to go to war again. That would be a great thing for America.
Hoa binh
“Support the Troops”, what a load of manure that little slogan is. Send them to occupy yet another country and fight an insurgency. There has NEVER been a successful outcome when fighting the locals in the way our government is attempting. There will no doubt be the same percentage of suicide and homelessness as there was from the Vietnam fiasco and who the hell ever cared enough to actually do anything except wave a flag around now and then.
Democrats….They seem just about as much use as a pitcher of warm spit. The poorer families are just going to have to accept that their children who volunteer for the military are expendable, just like those of us who were drafted in the 60’s because our parents had no influence with the Draft Boards. Daja Vu often sucks.
Veteran, 1966-68
Take it to the Streets Saturday!!!
rtdrury:
More Greens strive to live that way.
Over at tpmcafe (fairleft here: http://www.tpmcafe.com/blog/coffeehouse/2007/may/23/where_is_the_love) I was just saying (see the last paragraph):
rtdrury, you’re right. There must be some way to affect national policy. Unfortunately, too many of us in this country have our heads in the sand. I’m in Spokane WA and very few people attend the moveon demonstrations. How do we get their attention from American Idol? I’ve had some wild ideas, such as chartering a cruise ship and heading towards Iraq as a form of mass protest. Or setting up a huge non profit organization to fund the troops so the gutless Democrats can stick to the job we elected them to do. I try to patronize the corporate products as little as possible. I’m incredibly frustrated and willing to take some risks to get my point across. Any ideas will be appreciated.
Follow the money. The only people benefiting from the occupation of Iraq are the corporate leaders, including Cheney, of Haliburton, Triple Canopy, KBR, Blackwater, et al., the companies that insure them, the aerospace companies that build their aircraft and the other corporations that directly or indirectly benefit from war.
Please, everybody, do not call this illegal occupation “war”. It is not. We must continue to call it by the correct name. Do not let the bushites choose our language. The invasion was illegal according to our laws and according to international law. This occupation is also illegal.
I understand why the dems in congress are using the republican terms. They all eat from the same hog trough.
We do not, so we can call it what it really is. ILLEGAL OCCUPATION. Bring our troops home and take care of them.
“Funding for the troops” is really about $$$ for the mega contractors and the extremely well-paid cilvilian mercenary “soldiers” (more like Bush’s private army) whom often earn more in one day than a “real” member of our military does in an entire, hellish month.
How much do you want to bet these for-hire killers get the best of everything, like body armor, and excellent vehicles, etc., and also do not have to suffer the other extreme indignities endured by our troops? And do you really think they are the ones taking on the toughest assignments? Unlikely. They also have limited oversight on every count, and are getting away with legal, government endorsed mass murder.
So yah, enough of this “for the troops” bullshit- we know what they really mean.
I had the mistaken idea the democrats were going to take Bush to hand, but realize now the Dems. are as useless as tits on a boar.
vet-51′to 55′
It’s not a war but an armed robbery.
Clearly the lynchpin of America’s continued prosperity has to be wars without ending.
How else could the fat cats keep on garnering all the goodies -throwing an occasional scrap off their High Table to the poverty-stricken masses huddled below their feet.
I don’t support the troops. The troops are just mercenaries who voluntarily signed up for an organization with a long history of war crimes, human rights abuses, protection of corporate criminal contractors, and in-kind subsidies to multinational corporations who rely on said troops to bully, terrorize, and kill people abroad as a means of maintaining advantages over competitors. Why would I support that?
Granted, many, perhaps most, of our troops have fallen for some slick lies about what the functional accomplishments of the U.S. military are and have been. But that is something to oppose in and of itself, not a reason to become something of an accomplice or facilitator by “supporting our troops.”
The whole enterprise, not just a couple of recent examples of illegal military adventures turned into quagmires, is atrocious. I want nothing to do with it.
I support bringing our troops home from 600 bases around the world, rehabilitating them, compensating them for their disabilities that have resulted from service in the world’s greatest killing machine, and abiding long forgotten Constitutional prohibitions against maintaining a military industrial complex that accounts for half of the entire world’s military spending to enrich an ever smaller fraction of its 5% of the world’s population. Let those wealthy investors and corporations who have been skipping out on what used to be their share of taxes support their own troops–and face the war crimes charges that should go along with hiring death squads–if they think they need them in order to do business. Now, that I would support!
Oligarchy- “few rule”
also see:
Oilgarchy
Autocracy
Dictatorship
Fascism
Kleptocracy
Tyranny
Not a democracy, not a republic….. as the sheep are so desperate to believe
Right on, Rune. If the military was not cloaked in the “glamour” of war, people might look more directly into the heart of the beast and begin to see this is NOT something worth funding, certainly not to the detriment of education, rebuilding domestic infra-structure, health care, and the much more pressing problem of climate instability and its related need for investment in alternative fuel sources… but monopoly (as per the military-industrial complex) is so much fun I’d hate to blow the game (Phil Ochs) seems thus far the dominant mindset.
Having supported Jeff Cohen early on when FAIR, his media watch dog first got going, I’m happy to stand with him on this. He has been inside the beast of the corporate media and tells like it is there, and here tells what is so completely wrong with our body politic and so disconnected from the USA’s people.
I would beg to differ on the only path to change the course of recalcitrant Democrats, I’d say having a strong progressive third party infrastructure in place across this country and ready to move at a moment’s notice against these dawgs is what is needed, but maybe the legal deck is so stacked against this as to be near impossible, and Cohen having been a lawyer would probably know this better than myself. I’d like to think that this option isn’t completely off the table. But maybe Cohen has looked at this option and sees we would be up against impossible odds. I quite understand that if that is the case, but I still hate to think it would be so absolutely so.
Regardless, Cohen deserves our thanks anyway.
Actually according to an Iraq war veteran friend of mine says they were eating lobster (in the desert) and steak every Sunday for dinner..
WHY DO THEY HATE US SO MUCH?? (the all-time most audacious question asked by supremacist xenophobic Yanks and their Fascist allies)
——————————————————————————–
Read that question w/ some whining noise added to it for fun!!!
This is a response from a world citizen to the all-time most naive question I have heard/read so much from the so-called analysts, writers, politicians, and hands of IMPERIALISM in your dishonest media.
In your undying, never-ending hatred for Iran and drowned in an ocean of narcissism, you simply have forgotten, or yet better, chosen to forget, the crimes, inhumane policies, arrogant attitudes, and pain inflicted by you “patriotic” psychos on many a nation, including Persians.
Well, the Northern Christian hypocrisy and self-love on one side; its harsh animosity and blood thirst for Iran is something else. It was evident in your clownish, arrogant President’s speeches and now it’s epitomized by the most blatantly hateful, Nazi pieces of propaganda which Goebbels himself would love you for ), there it comes, suck it and swallow it w/ AMERICAN (w/ a thick R the way you like it) pride and xenophobia.
By what I have read from the likes of you in your very “OBJECTIVE” media (no shortage in the ” objective, informed, and bright” nation of yours), you completely epitomize what the monstrous Northern Christian imperialism means to billions of impoverished, victimized, oppressed masses of the world and what it has done for the past several centuries only in order to secure its own filthy interests derived from your selfish, self-indulged, self-centered, egotistic, materialist, and Calvinist lifestyles and worldviews. If and only if you were interested in the truth and facts, you could easily find the answer by reviewing your friends’ list and also crimes’ list for decades or centuries (for those Euro liberals!!). It doesn’t take a genius, does it?
YOU are the epitome of unfairness, injustice, governmental terrorism and bigotry. These are some of the crimes against humanity committed by your patriotic asses all over the planet (the list would be only too long but I mention a few here):
U.S. sponsored coup against democracy in Guatemala in 1954 which resulted in the deaths of over 120,000 Guatemalan peasants by U.S. installed dictatorships over the course of four decades.
U.S. overthrew the governments of the Dominican Republic in 1965 and helped to murder 3,000 people.
1973, the U.S. sponsored a coup in Chile against he democratic government of Salvador Allende and helped to murder another 30,000 people.
1965 the U.S. sponsored a coup in Indonesia that resulted in the murder of over 800,000 people, and the subsequent slaughter in 1975 of over 250,000 innocent people in East Timor by the Indonesian regime with the direct complicity of President Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger
U.S. sponsored terrorist contra war (the World Court declared the U.S. government a war criminal in 1984 for the mining of the harbours) against Nicaragua in the 1980s which resulted in the deaths of over 30,000 innocent people (or as the U.S. government used to call them before the term “collateral damage” was invented–”soft targets”).
U.S. war against the people of El Salvador in the 1980s, which
resulted in the brutal deaths of over 80,000 people, or “soft targets”.
U.S. sponsored terror war against the peoples of southern Africa (especially Angola) that began in the 1970’s and resulted in the deaths and mutilations of over 1,000,000.
U.S. invaded Panama over the Christmas season of 1989 and killed over 5,000 in an attempt to capture George H. Bush’s CIA partner, now turned enemy, Manual Noriega.
U.S. sponsored a brutal coup that resulted in the deaths of over 70,000 Iranians from 1952-1978.
This doesn’t even mention the crimes in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Grenada, Bay of Pigs and before that the support for and direct involvement w/ Batista’s regime in Cuba, the 8-year war against Iran -including chemical weapons usage- by (the former friend!!) Saddam, death squads in Central America, the 5 decades of Israeli crimes in Palestine and Lebanon (the veto policy), the “missing” in Argentina, and of course the “silent coup” in Algeria in 91 (w/ deceitful cooperation from the French bastards) that stopped the FIS from winning the elections thus plunging the country into a civil war for years…………….
We can never forget your crimes or undying sense of self-love and ego that make the Yankees and their NATO/G7 lovers the most detested nations on this planet, perhaps galaxy.
Now kill as many innocent people as you want. LAUNCH, LAUNCH as a bastard called JAMES WOODS declared on JAY LENO. Brag about Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Beirut bombings. Brag about killing of the innocent family members of Kaddafi, all the countries’ leaders and revolutionaries who had the guts to say no to your Fascist Empire.
It matters not. The U.S. (and the British disgusting colonialism) will go where the Romans, German Nazis, Mongols, and the rest of the arrogant sorry excuses for humanity went. Now celebrate killing Moslems, Nationalists, and Leftists (not to mention nuns and priests), etc. in your never-ending fire of hatred, supremacy and ego.
Unlike many other foreigners, I am not simplistic enough to think you are just the minority and the “rest” are simply decent, nice, culture-loving individuals. The fact is it’s filth like you that votes for the criminals you call leaders (Reagan and Bushes, Blair, Merkel, Harper and Howard come to mind immediately). Also I don’t think, despite the popular belief, you are ignorant or just stupid; I think you know enough and simply choose to ignore because you are the most selfish, inhumane, robotic bastards this planet has seen for a long time. Your sense of “SELECTIVE MEMORY and JUDGMENT” is proof enough.
I think legendary Orwell got it right in this passage from Nineteen Eighty-Four, an account of the ultimate supremacist empire:
“And in the general hardening of outlook that set in . . . practices which had been long abandoned - imprisonment without trial, the use of war prisoners as slaves, public executions, torture to extract confessions . . . and the deportation of whole populations - not only became common again, but were tolerated and even defended by people who considered themselves enlightened and progressive.”
As a reaction to your actions, our (the South) hatred for you could only be compared to the feelings we have against Serbs, Nazis, Genghis Khan and Alexander the Criminal.
THE NEW ROME WILL FALL…… AND ITS FOLLOWERS, FRIENDS, ALLIES AND APOLOGISTS….. WE’LL MAKE SURE OF THAT. DEATH TO THE U.S. and EU!!!
Not all of the Democrats have caved. Congressman Kucinich has consistently oppossed the illegal occupation of Iraq and its funding. If you are interested in reading the details go to www.democracynow.org and read his interview with Amy Goodman.
Is there list of who else has voted against these betrayal bills? We don’t need to get rid of all the incumbants only those who are supporating the illegal occupation and corporate rip offs. One reason Kucinich can speak out, is that he does not get corporate support, therefore we must get laws passed from the bottom up supporting publically funded elections. This also gives third party canidates more of a chance. The commentator Jim Hightower has several good articles on this, see www.jimhightower.org